Search This Blog

Posts

For months, my new workstation at my office was still using Windows 7 (original edition) since i'm kinda lazy to install Slackware-Current and i wanted to install a clean Slackware 13.37 system. I finally had a chance after Slackware 13.37 has been released yesterday.

I grab 2 DVD from my house this morning when i went to office and burned Slackware 13.37 DVD ISO and start installing it and i got my 13.37 system in less than 15 minutes. Everything worked as intended and it's getting easier to configure Slackware, even in text mode. Since i use Intel card, i don't really need to install blob driver, and KDE desktop effects works out-of-the-box, so i'm really happy with it, even though it's not a primary thing for me.

Since i have dropbox account, i can just put my configuration files i used at home in my desktop at home and my workstation will get it automatically and i only need to remotely login to the workstation using SSH and i can start configuring it.

It was a great birthday yesterday and for that, i would like to announce that all Slackware 13.37 ISOs (CD/DVD, 32/64 bit) are already available in UKDW ISO Server. Since the release was in morning, it took some time to complete the full mirroring, but at least it was finished since last night, but i already went to sleep so the last 64 bit DVD wasn't moved until this morning.

The ISOs can be collected from this URLhttp://iso.ukdw.ac.id/slackware/13.37/http://iso.ukdw.ac.id/slackware/13.37_64/

RSYNC service is also availablersync://repo.ukdw.ac.id/iso/slackware/13.37/rsync://repo.ukdw.ac.id/iso/slackware/13.37_64/

Enjoy Slackware and don't forget to keep supporting Slackware Project by donating or buying goodies at Slackware Store or even better, subscribe to Slackware CD/DVDs.

Hey... it seems that Pat is probably silently watching my previous post and decided to release Slackware 13.37 as my birthday gift. It's officially out now and you can read the announcement and the release notes

I'm waiting for the new T-Shirt mentioned by Pat at Slackware's home page. It's gonna be a must-have goodies to buy and time to start donating for Slackware Project once again.we still have T-shirts (coming soon, a limited edition 13.37 release commemorative black T-shirt with the classic Slackware logo on the front, and a "leet" LILO bootscreen on the back)

Happy downloading and don't forget to keep supporting Slackware Project by donate, buy items or subscribe Slackware DVDs at Slackware Store. Every money you sent to it will help Slackware Project keeps running and produce even better release in the future

With 3 days left for the poll to be closed after running for about two months, will Slackware 13.37 be released during these 3 days? I really hope so. In fact, i will be very happy if it's released today as today is my birthday. Let's just say a nice birthday gift from Pat

It's been idle for several days and it seems that Pat and team are doing thorough testing for Slackware 13.37 just to make sure everything is set and ready to be launched. There's no major / important update lately, so i guess it's safe to put a release.

In the last two days, i have spent my time debugging and hacking my ASUS UL80VT laptop in order to work with asus-switcheroo project by A. William. It's another attempt to enable GPU switching, but it's designed specifically for ASUS laptop, while previous attempt by Dave Airlie was supposed to work on any hybrid laptop (apparently, it wasn't the case in mine). There's no Slackware's way, so i have to see the Makefile and adjust it with Slackware's way to get it done . I hope i can contribute to the project by adding Slackware's HowTo on the Makefile someday

So far, i have been able to enable /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch so that i can switch between Intel/NVidia card, but the problem is that it still uses nouveau driver, which as you already know doesn't provide any 3D acceleration for NVidia card. That's why i'm still working with A. William to make it work with my NVidia card. There's one step left for this to work, so it should …

JDK/JRE 6 Update 25 are now included in the latest -Current update as per today. This update fixes some problems described in the Release Notes, but it doesn't have any security fixes, so users running previous update (24) is considered safe.

Newer fvvwn release is now included in /extra after it has been requested via LQ. Beware about this update as the location for system config file now moves to the standard /etc directory.

One last change is the introduction of a new script in /etc/rc.d/ directory. It's called rc.loop and it will check for loop devices. If it's modular and not previously loaded, it will be loaded by the script. Future kernels will use the modular part and to avoid big surprises, Pat decided to put it under 13.37.

Sorry, there was a cache problem on my Firefox, so i only saw the previous update which was updated three hours before the latest changes . I realized the new update since i have pkgtool on my rsync update progress, while i don't see any pkgtool on the Changelog. Executing force reload makes this update available on my browser now

The cave is now closed and the last change is pkgtool which is rebuilt to clear the locale environment variables and then export LANG=C, as suggested by guanx and rg3 in LQ.

Pat decided to put more Kernel configs in /testing directory, so now there are 3 different configs, 2.6.35.12, 2.6.38.4, and 2.6.39-rc4. The reason why 2.6.35.12 is included is that because it's considered a long term kernel and many people that intends to use Slackware for server might prefer to use a long term kernel since it's supported by upstream developers. Pat also changed the configuration a little bit so that it's sync with newer config:BLK_DEV_LOOP y -> m FIREWIRE n -> m HIGHMEM64G n -> y HZ 1000 -> 100 MOUSE_PS2_ELANTECH n -> y PHONET m -> n PREEMPT_NONE n -> y PREEMPT_VOLUNTARY y -> n X86_PAE ympg123 and glib are upgraded to the latest stable version while aaa_elflibs is rebuilt since there's a new library in this update (glib).

Pat has given it's signal that the final date for 13.37 release is really close as the cave is closing soon and all adventurers should exit through main office now i…

New kernel packages are being included in /testing directory. This packages are for Linux Kernel 2.6.38.4, the just-released kernel by Greg marked as Stable release. There are two changes in the configuration as mentioned on the changelog:BLK_DEV_LOOP y -> mMOUSE_PS2_ELANTECH n -> yGPT support on RAID devices is also being updated after it gets a quick test by Greg Chandler. Guanx also contributed by suggesting adding a line on installpkg which is discussed at LQ.

Rdesktop application is now being rebuilt to fix security vulnerabilities (traversal) in the latest update in -Current as well in -Stable since this package hasn't changed since 11.0 even though newer version is already available (1.7.0).

Another changes is that there will be GPT support on RAID devices as well. GPT support for most IDE/SATA devices were already being added back on February update.

Probably (and hopefully) this will be the last security update for Slackware-Current before Slackware 13.37 ships. Acl and attr are now upgraded to the latest version to fix security problems (in acl) thus the images are also rebuilt. No more updates this morning and we expect Slackware 13.37 to arrive this week

Three new packages are introduced in the last minute of -Current development. Two packages are in the testing tree and one package in the main tree. Those two packages are libdrm and xf86-video-nouveau from git repository.

One new package in the main tree is really a new package, lrzip. It's not so critical, so it's considered a safe addition by Pat. Another library upgraded after it's considered safe is libsndfile. It's a bug fix release.

Little tweaks has been made on some files on /etc/rc.d/ directory, mostly rc.6 and rc.K files. Those two files are being executed when our system is rebooted or turned off (rc.6) and when Slackware is booted into a single mode (rc.K). Both has been tweaked to have better unmounting process with NFS partition.

There are no other updates left and the changelog is getting smaller and smaller each day. You don't want to have a breakage by introducing major changes in this phase of development.

The latest update in -Current brings Linux Kernel 2.6.38.3 under /testing. These kernel will not be the default kernel stock in Slackware 13.37, but it's still provided by Pat since many people requested this and reported that it will provide better performance for Intel card users if it's synchronized with the latest intel drivers which is also included in this update . These kernel will also fix the HP WMI problem as stated by Walecha on his blog.

Other interesting updates are upgraded acpid, coreutils, less, tar, mc, git, lftp, xaw3d, xf86-video-intel and rebuilt packages like dvd+rw-tools, gst-plugins-good, php, libX11, and gv. Everything should be set for nice release of Slackware 13.37. I think it will be a smooth release as usual.

If you have problems with the default kernel in Slackware 13.37, please try installing 2.6.38.3 or even compile your own Linux Kernel using 2.6.39-rc2 config files which are also provided by Pat. Don't forget to run Vincent Batts' patch …

If you are having some problems related to hibernation after using Linux Kernel 2.6.37.6, you might stumbled to a problem which is now fixed in the latest -Current update. This update only add one patch to fix the hibernate problem after it has been committed by Peter Anvin in Linus' git tree.

There are no other update for today which should be a sign that a final release of Slackware 13.37 is very close. Just stay in for few days and hopefully that waited moment will come this week.

Vincent Batts has posted an interesting article called More 1337 for your Slackware-13.37 release on his blog. What can you do in order to make your future Slackware 13.37 become more interesting? As you can see, everytime we boot our Slackware machine, there's always a penguin logo in top of the screen that matches the number of processors you have on that machine.

Linus changed that logo for one Linux Kernel release with something different to Tuz, the Tasmanian Devil to raise the awareness for these creatures. Vincent tried the same thing now, but not with another Tuz, but with Slackware 13.37 taste of Penguin logo like this one

For sometime, there were two active projects related to NTFS, filesystem owned by Microsoft. They are NTFS-3G, which is developed by Tuxera and also ntfsprogs which is available on SourceForge.

NTFS-3G recently gained a lot of popularity due to it's ability to safely write data to Windows partition without corrupting it, something that ntfsprogs are not able to do for a long time. Due to this reason, many Linux distributions ships both ntfsprogs which are NTFS utilities and provide read-only access and NTFS-3G for those who need write access to NTFS partition.

Well, the good news is that now both project are being merged. Read the announcement here and they have released a new version called ntfs-3g_ntfsprogs-2011.4.12, released on April 10, 2011. The list of changes can be seen at their Release History.

Unfortunately, this new merged package won't come into 13.37. It's too late for that and it would have to wait until next -Current cycle starts after 13.37 is released. It…

Shadow is now rebuilt and issued as a security update where the vulnerability could potentially lead to a denial of service. This update only applies to Slackware 13.1 and -Current. It has been given an advisory code of SSA:2011-101-01.

Meanwhile, work towards better Slackware release are still being one on several packages, mostly pkgtool. It has received a lot of patches from many people in LQ and hopefully this will be the last update to pkgtool.

There's also a lot of rebuilt packages in this batch of updates, including seamonkey, apmd, sysvinit-scripts, and v4l-utils. Mesa in /testing is upgraded to 7.10.2, the latest stable release and gdk-pixbufs is also upgraded as well.

Another call for Slackware 13.37 Release Candidate. This time, Pat took the suggestion from Nicola to take Feigenbaum constant of 4.6692 to be the codename for (hopefully) the last RC before Slackware 13.37.

Finally, we see Linux Kernel 2.6.37.6 included in this release and not only that. Pat also put Linux Kernel 2.6.38.2 packages on /testing directory. Did i say packages? Yes, it's a binary packages, so you don't need to compile Linux Kernel by yourself. Pat provided those packages for us. Still related to Linux Kernel, Pat has changed the configuration for Linux Kernel 2.6.38.2 and 2.6.39-rc2 with these changes:HIGHMEM64G n -> yPREEMPT_VOLUNTARY y -> nX86_PAE y

This should make 32bit system will be able to fully utilize the memory bigger than 4 GB. Naturally, it will only sees 3.5 GB due to some limitations of the architecture, but with this option turned on, you won't have any problem accessing memory up to 64 GB.

There is one security update for Slackware, starting from Slackware 11.0 until -Current which is for ProFTPD. Even though previous poll has declared a big win for VSFTPD over ProFTPD, it seems that ProFTPD is still being maintained and included in Slackware (at least until 13.37 comes out).

There are a lot of rebuilt on this update which should fix some problems, such as in mkinitrd, aaa_elflibs, slackpkg, kdebase, and xxgdb. The other packages are being upgraded to the latest stable version.

This post also marks my 1000th post on this SlackBlogs. It's not about Slackware 13.37 announcement, but i'm still happy to have this milestone passed. Now, time to go for 2000 posts

Another minor update showed up on -Current. This time, it's more likely a development tools and libraries that gets upgraded.

Git and mercurial are upgraded to the latest stable version along with some libraries such as libgsf, glib2, and v4l-utils. ViM and ViM-gvim are also upgraded and dialog is being rebuilt.

We still don't see Linux Kernel updates yet on -Current, while 2.6.37.6 has been out for days. Is it possible to have Linux Kernel 2.6.38.2 on -Current? We will have to wait for that one. If it does, then it's going to be a great release. Not much Linux distribution is shipping with Linux Kernel 2.6.38.x yet (it will be used in Ubuntu 11.04 and Fedora 15), but Slackware can make it the first one if it's released before April 28

Yes, you saw it. It's PAM being added into Slackware 13.37 in order to make Beta and Unstable version of Google Chrome buildable on -Current (and soon Slackware 13.37). It's not the entire PAM, but only the needed library libpam.so.0 which gets included.

Sox is upgraded to 14.3.2 which includes new features and better stability. This one was requested on LQ. PHP was rebuilt with new config parameter --with-sqlite3=shared. Madplay is patched to fix crashes on x86_64 system, gtk2 is now upgraded to gtk2-2.24.4, and compiz is upgraded to 0.8.8.

The last addition on this update is Linux Kernel 2.6.39-rc1 configs are now being added into /testing directory. This config is intended for testing purposes only and it should be used if you really need to build Linux Kernel 2.6.39-rc1 (and future RCs). Suppose you need a stable Kernel, please use the default stock supported by Slackware 13.37, which is 2.6.37.5 (soon to be 2.6.37.6).

Today's update are only a minor updates for three packages, slackpkg, xpdf, and sqlite.

Slackpkg now supports more up to date mirrors, including Indonesian mirrors which i sent to Piter Punk few days ago, allowing blank lines in blacklist files, and also better documentation on regular expression which is new feature.

SQLite is now upgraded to 3.7.5 and xpdf is now rebuilt with new configure parameter --without-t1-library.